Mayhem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas

Paper $30.00ISBN: 9781910065501
Published
May 2015
For Sale in USA and Canada Only

In 1741, the British warship HMS Wager crashed on the shore of an uninhabited island off the coast of Chilean Patagonia. One hundred and forty men reached land. Only thirty-six made it back home. The "Wager" Disaster is the extraordinary story of human endurance and the perseverance of those soldiers in the face of unthinkable adversity.

Britain and Spain were at war, and the Wager was part of a small British squadron sent to extend the battle to their Spanish possessions in the South Seas. Unfortunately, there were no accurate charts of the west coast of South America, and much of the navigation was determined by guesswork. Vicious hurricane-force winds wrecked the Wager, separating it from the squadron. Starvation, exhaustion, hypothermia, and drowning quickly claimed most of the soldiers who survived the wreck. The rest rose up against the unpopular captain and set off in an open boat with no chart, resulting in one of the greatest survival voyages as the castaways made their way 2,500 nautical miles back to Britain.

Drawing on the firsthand accounts of the survivors, The "Wager" Disaster tells the compelling story of a dramatic fight for survival under extreme conditions.

Part 4: The Captain and his Few 17. Preparations to Struggle North 18. Foul Weather Defeats Them 19. Negotiations with Native Indians 20. A Nightmare Journey 21. Prisoners of War 22. An Adventurous Passage to France 23. Home, and a Voice from the Dead

Part 5: Consequences at Home 24. The Shadow of Mutiny 25. The Court-Martial 26. Aftermath

Part 6: The Wreck Returns 27. The Spanish Salvage Attempt 28. The Finding of the Wager 2006

"This book is far more than a heroic story of British seagoing endurance, though the 2,500–mile voyage of a handful of starving, desperate seamen in an open long-boat round South America is in itself epic. But the narratives of the ‘Wager’survivors, now collected and edited by Admiral Layman, are infinitely richer than any one-dimensional Victorian tale of British grit. They are tales of horrific, often repulsive suffering; they are sinister mysteries; they are tales of moral dilemmas.

Above all, these narratives present us with a cast of extraordinary, vivid human characters. Some are struggling with their consciences; some are obsessed with hatred and fear. There are steady and resourceful men who nevertheless let the weak die in order to save the strong; there are traitors determined to reach safety so that they can denounce their own shipmates. And – most fortunately for us – there are a few marvelous young men who never stopped observing the places and peoples they encountered and somehow – in the face of ghastly extremities – recording them with wonder and in detail. Almost forgotten for more than a century, the ‘Wager’ story in all its fearsome complexity and tragic horror is now returned to us in lasting and well-illustrated form."

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu